Composer of the Week: Copland

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Composer of the Week

Music: Classical

Composer of the Week - Brand

An informative guide to composers' lives and their music.

An informative and accessible guide to composers' lives and their music.

Composer of the Week: Aaron Copland (1900-1990): Private Matters, 1948-1949

Private Matters, 1948-1949

Aaron Copland (1900-1990)

BBC Radio 3 - Composer of the Week, Aaron Copland (1900-1990), Private Matters, 1948-1949

Donald Macleod contrasts developments in Copland’s personal life with wider issues.

Donald Macleod contrasts developments in Copland’s personal life with wider issues: the spectre of nuclear war, disillusionment with the Soviet Union, and the flight to suburbia.

Copland's music becomes introspective as he ponders the postwar future of America and the world. Presented by Donald Macleod.

This week of programmes explores Aaron Copland’s most productive decade, and features some of his best-loved works in full. During this time, Copland hit his prime. He became recognised as America’s leading composer, winning the Pulitzer Prize in Music and an Academy Award for his work in Hollywood.

He toured Europe and South America, absorbing diverse influences from each, and composed key works including his Third Symphony, Appalachian Spring, Lincoln Portrait, Fanfare for the Common Man and Rodeo.

We get a sense of how Copland’s personal and professional interests developed over the 1940s and learn about his friendships and challenges during and in the aftermath of World War II.

In Copland’s music of this period, there is a move towards personal statements relating to issues of nature, death, love and self-realisation. In this programme, Donald Macleod contrasts developments in Copland’s personal life with wider issues that he was pondering: the spectre of nuclear war, disillusionment with the Soviet Union and the flight to suburbia.

Preamble for a Solemn Occasion
London Symphony Orchestra
Aaron Copland, conductor

Twelve Poems of Emily Dickinson
No. 4 – The World feels dusty
No. 5 – Heart, we will forget him
No. 12 – The Chariot
Lydia Easley, soprano
Enrico Maria Polimanti, piano

An Outdoor Overture (version for wind ensemble)
United States Army Field Band
Finley R. Hamilton, conductor

Four Piano Blues 
Leo Smit, piano

Clarinet Concerto
David Singer, clarinet
A Far Cry Orchestra


Produced by Iain Chambers for BBC Wales

Composer of the Week: Aaron Copland (1900-1990)

Live music and the arts: broadcasts more live music than any other radio network. Classical music is its core. Genres include world and new music, jazz, speech and drama.

Donald Macleod explores Aaron Copland's most productive decade, the 1940s.

Donald Macleod explores Aaron Copland's most productive decade, the 1940s, and features some of his best-loved works.

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Composer of the Week

Aaron Copland (1900-1990)

Private Matters, 1948-1949

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